100,000 .Mac Subscribers

[arn]

Apple announced that over 100,000 Mac users have subscribed to their .Mac service with over 1000 new subscribers daily.

"We're thrilled to have more than 100,000 .Mac subscribers so quickly,"
said Sina Tamaddon, Apple's senior vice president of Applications. "We're
getting over 1,000 new .Mac subscribers every day, which is proof that many of
our users want to seamlessly extend their digital lives onto the Internet."


Further integration is expected in the future...

 

[gotohamish]

I'm not one.

When there's more integration, maybe I'll be interested.

And when UK users can user Sherlock properly, and iPhoto.

no far... etc etc...

 

[Thirteenva]

over a 1,000 new subscribers every day??? that sounds "optimistic" if you ask me...


I can't wait for some new .mac integration and services...with all these subscribers apple is bound to do some great things with the service.

 

[kevinibook]

it's probably an average (i.e number of susbscribers divide by number of days .Mac has been available.)

 

[scottlee]

its coming soon

I signed up for a .mac account especially since the $50 deal is almost up for the itool members to make the transition. Also, the integration with the apps is right around the corner. I needed the server space too. At $50 its not a bad deal.

 

[macktheknife]

Wow, if this is true, and if people were forking over $50 for .Mac, this is an additional cool $5 million added to Apple's bottom line. And if those same 100,000 subscribers renewed their subscription next year for $100, that's $10 million for Apple.

Hum, that's pretty easy money for the company if you ask me. No wonder they decided to charge for .Mac! Well, I've been putting off sending Apple my $50, but when it comes down to it, do I really want to lose my .Mac e-mail and homepage account? I guess if I'm going to pay for e-mail and webpage hosting, I'd rather the money go into Apple's pocket than Microsoft or Yahoo's.

 

[strider42]

so much for those claims of a 50% adoption rate. thats like less than 5%. I mean, if apple wants to make money off it, more power to them. these things aren't cheap to setup and maintain.

I stll wish they would offer email only accounts. I think they'd get a higher adoption rate, and potentially more money. I would think that if they gave every new mac a 1 year account, a lot more people would be inclined to renew after that if they were given a cheap way to simply keep the email address.

But oh well, hopefully apple has done some business studies showing it wouldn't be worth it for whatever reason, or maybe they'll offer it in the future. Meanwhile, my email account disappears in a couple of weeks and I have to use hotmail, cause I like the fact that it works with entourage.

 

[Blackcat]

I did

I subbed despite it being quite US-centric. $99 is a bargain for what you get, and from a sysadmin point of view, I doubt they make more than $20/user.

 

[sparkleytone]

i wonder if they are counting those that didnt pay for their .Mac subscription and those that had already bought extra space and got a yr for free.

i have a free subscription, and i think it would be interesting if i count into that number. i wouldnt buy .Mac as it stands now, but if it continues to be a progressive technology with enough useful features by this time next yr, i'd buy it.

 

[trilogic]

virex is worth it. The easy to use iPhoto sharing feature is my favourit actually I signed .mac mainly because of sharing photos so easily. the backup tools isn't that interesting to me because I'd like to backup to a external hd. iCal is getting very usefull but I wan't to be able to passwordprotect. I'm shure this will be possible soon.

Last week I've got a ".mac early adopter coupon" worth 75 swissfrancs aprox 50 US$ for my next purchase at the apple store.

 

[blackpeter]

I don't need this service, but all the power to Apple if it's really bringing them some ca$h.

I'm still cross about them indian-giving us email accounts. But if some of this extra money is being spent on R&D, better software, and generally making Apple a bigger presence in the market, then I'm all for .Mac.

Now gimme my GHz Ti!

 

[Wyvernspirit]

.Mac, got it...for now.

I got it, I just don't know if I'll keep it. I'll wait and see what comes out over the next year. If nothing changes (or very little) I already have a back up email (same username, just with my ISP) I'll start letting people know the new one if a need to.

I just can't justify $100 for email, I have NEVER needed Virus protection except when I was on AOL, the back up prgram as it stands is a joke, and don't get me started on iCards or what ever that is. And homepage? I get 60MB from broadband, or maybe I could just run it off computer.

Well, I will wait and see...

 

[pgwalsh]

Well good for Apple. I wonder what there expectations were to begin with.

At 100 clams I don't see myself subscribing to the service. If it was $25 a year and had 200 mb of space I would do it.

I can buy 200mb of web space and have 5 or more email accounts from a hosting company for around the same price. Granted it doesn't have the same services and integration with iPhoto (etc), but you could probably build something with server-side scripting to include that functionality.

 

[awrootbeer]

oops, here I was expecting upwards of 1million users (per a previously posted rumor)..

I wonder if Apple is happy with these results.

 

[Blackcat]

Originally posted by awrootbeer
oops, here I was expecting upwards of 1million users (per a previously posted rumor)..

I wonder if Apple is happy with these results.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Apple never introduce the $99 price. That's on the edge of people's threshhold I reckon, but $79 would be good. A monthly or quarterly payment plan would be nice too.

I think $15 email only accounts would sell well too.

 

[BobVB]

Of course it selling well now - they are giving away a free game and 100 ($49 worth) of iPhoto 4x6s. So for anyone who wants the prints the first year is better than free. One reason I subscribed. I guess they are hoping on consumer inertia for the second year.

 

[awrootbeer]

Originally posted by Blackcat


It wouldn't surprise me at all if Apple never introduce the $99 price. That's on the edge of people's threshhold I reckon, but $79 would be good. A monthly or quarterly payment plan would be nice too.

I think $15 email only accounts would sell well too.

Ouch, I think many would be upset if Apple suddenly never introduced the 99$ price tag. We could argue that the current "promotion" was nothing more than a big marketing scam.

 

[awrootbeer]

Originally posted by BobVB
Of course it selling well now - they are giving away a free game and 100 ($49 worth) of iPhoto 4x6s. So for anyone who wants the prints the first year is better than free. One reason I subscribed. I guess they are hoping on consumer inertia for the second year.

lol good point. it appears that Apple is willing to lose money at the start... just like video game consoles selling for much less than they cost to make because the companies know they will be able to make up the money with the games.

 

[Blackcat]

Originally posted by awrootbeer


Ouch, I think many would be upset if Apple suddenly never introduced the 99$ price tag. We could argue that the current "promotion" was nothing more than a big marketing scam.

Mac users are indeed that bizarre!

 

[Molson]

I am unable to subscribe!

Hi - I'd love to be the 100,001 subscriber but I can't register online. I'm in the UK and it seems that my perfectly valid credit card is declined. (I've checked with my bank and they say that it should be okay!) Having looked at the discussion groups over at Apple support, the reason my card may be declined is that I'm trying to use an English credit card (ie registered to an address in UK).

I thought VISA was worldwide? I've had no problems before (and in fact since) using my VISA card online.

How did those of you in the UK manage to subscribe?

Also there is news of a Europe-centric .mac web page (hopefully to allow me to use my credit card). It was rumored to be here early September (called Apple directly, but they can't tell me anymore), but still no sign. I've only got thirteen days left before my trial account ends!

PLEASE help! Any hints would be really helpful!

Thanks.

 

[kevin49093]

Originally posted by tfaz1

I'm still cross about them indian-giving us email accounts....

Indian-giving?
Am I the only one who thought this was a bit of a racist statement?
I know no harm was probably ment, but come on now.. it makes you seem a bit slow in your thinking.

 

[P-Worm]

Umm, 1 question...

Does .mac need to be bought multiple times for multiple computers like other software does?

I was thinking no because most of it is on the web and the web is universal. For example, I can look up my email anywhere with .mac.

But what about the software? Virex and the backup thing are not all internet.

So what do you guys think? If I want .mac and have three computers, do I need to buy three .macs?

P-Worm

 

[appleguy]

Re: Umm, 1 question...

Originally posted by P-Worm
Does .mac need to be bought multiple times for multiple computers like other software does?

I was thinking no because most of it is on the web and the web is universal. For example, I can look up my email anywhere with .mac.

But what about the software? Virex and the backup thing are not all internet.

So what do you guys think? If I want .mac and have three computers, do I need to buy three .macs?

P-Worm

Its called webmail.mac.com

I am one of the lucky ones, I got my .mac account for free..
Got to love that Learn and Earn

 

[eric_n_dfw]

Slow in thinking? Maybe you are just too uptight.

Originally posted by kevin49093
Indian-giving?
Am I the only one who thought this was a bit of a racist statement?
I know no harm was probably ment, but come on now.. it makes you seem a bit slow in your thinking.

Getting a bit off topic - but I think we all are getting a bit to "P.C." here.

I don't get offended at Polish jokes which are INTENDED to be derogatory. Nor am I upset that Italian's are made out in popular entertainment to all be in the mafia. (I have both in my ancestry FWIW.)

Are you an Indian/Native American/Native Indian (depending on which term you use)? Are you offended? I'm serious, I'd like to know. Do we have any Native American's here who are offended by the term "Indian-giver"?

What about when the British call Americans, "Yankees"? It was definitely not a complementary term when it was first coined; now it is a term of patriotism in the USA.

 

[webmasterkai]

Re: Umm, 1 question...

Originally posted by P-Worm
Does .mac need to be bought multiple times for multiple computers like other software does?

I was thinking no because most of it is on the web and the web is universal. For example, I can look up my email anywhere with .mac.

But what about the software? Virex and the backup thing are not all internet.

So what do you guys think? If I want .mac and have three computers, do I need to buy three .macs?

P-Worm

No. I have four computers and it all works fine on all of them.